1. Field
The present invention generally relates to ultrasound diagnostic fields, and more particularly to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and method for measuring a size of a target object in an ultrasound image.
2. Background
An ultrasound system has become an important and popular diagnostic tool since it has a wide range of applications. Specifically, due to its non-invasive and non-destructive nature, the ultrasound system has been extensively used in the medical profession. Modern high-performance ultrasound systems and techniques are commonly used to produce two or three-dimensional images of internal features of an object (e.g., human organs).
The ultrasound system generally uses a probe containing a wide bandwidth transducer to transmit and receive ultrasound signals. The ultrasound system forms images of human internal tissues by electrically exciting an acoustic transducer element or an array of acoustic transducer elements to generate ultrasound signals that travel into the body. The ultrasound signals produce ultrasound echo signals since they are reflected from body tissues, which appear as discontinuities to the propagating ultrasound signals. Various ultrasound echo signals return to the transducer element and are converted into electrical signals, which are amplified and processed to produce ultrasound data for an ultrasound image of the tissues.
The ultrasound image is outputted through an output device such as a monitor, a screen or the like. A user of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus determines a status, a position, a size, etc. of the target object desired to observe through the ultrasound image containing the target object. In order to measure a size, i.e., depth, width and volume of the target object according to the prior art, the user determines a contour line of the target object with a naked eye and selects points on the contour line, thereby computing a distance between the points. However, since the ultrasound image is easily degraded due to noises, it may be difficult for the user to determine the contour line of the target. Also, an extensive amount of time is consumed due to a minute operation for determining the contour line.